TDSIG at IATEFL 2018

Two weeks is a long time in ELT. Just a fortnight ago, the TDSIG committee were gearing up to get ready for the IATEFL Annual Conference in Brighton – and what a busy event it was!

TDSIG teamed up with the Leadership and Management Special Interest Group (LAMSIG) for our Pre-Conference Event on Monday 9 April, ‘Personalised Teacher Development: is it possible?’ – with speakers coming in from Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, and Brighton. An audience of over 90 ELT professionals gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities for fostering teacher development in and across institutions (the lucky delegates also got to enjoy an afternoon ice cream, even if the weather was slightly over cast!)

We also put together a Showcase Day jam-packed with talks and workshops chosen to get conference delegates thinking about and reflecting on myriad issues relating to teacher development. The programme featured reports on research projects from the UK and Australia, both large-scale and smaller in scope, tips and techniques for focusing on teaching experience and our identity as ELT professionals. We had a range of speakers from teachers at the chalkface to managers to former IATEFL plenary speakers (no less than 5, FIVE, through the course of the day). Much food for thought to be taken away.

Here come the blogs

Sandy Millin attended our #LAMTDSIG Pre-Conference Event and wrote up not one, but two summaries directly relating to TDSIG sessions at the conference. In a short summary of the PCE she picked up some of the main points of the day, and expands on them in this more detailed post on the themes of management, teacher training and development (as well as other sessions from the main conference programme, including several sessions from the TDSIG Showcase Day).